David Yates to Direct SCARFACE Reboot?

‘Harry Potter’ helmer David Yates is close to putting pen to paper to take the director’s chair for Universal’s new take on the iconic gangster story ‘Scarface,’ according to Deadline.

Knowing that the project is being met with curiosity and criticism, Universal “has been refining the script with several screenwriters and drafts while keeping all names and details under wraps,” and according to the site, the studio is “very high on the current draft.”

As previously reported, the new film is not intended to be a sequel or a remake of the earlier iterations – the 1932 original and Brian De Palma’s 1983 cult classic starring Al Pacino – but instead a straight reboot that will use common elements to tell a new rags to riches story about a crime kingpin “who through a ruthless campaign of ambition goes in hot pursuit of his American Dream.”

Marc Shmuger (‘The Spectacular Now,’ ‘Dead of Winter’) is on board to produce through his Global Produce banner alongside Martin Bregman, who produced the 1983 version.